Team Wings Gaming Preview: ESL One Manila
Wings Gaming do not have much experience of competing in Dota at the highest level. A team with humble beginnings, they have been lurking in the shadows of the bigger names in the Chinese scene, tasting occasional success in Minor tournaments, but rarely achieving anything beyond this.
The team were founded in August 2014 and included Yuki, JoyceChu, That’s It, Inori and bLink. Since then, they have had several metamorphoses, but the current line-up was formed with the ambition of qualifying for and performing well in a Premier tournament.
The current players have been together since August 2015 and their familiarity as a team is starting to pay dividends as ESL One Manila will be their second Premier tournament participation in 2016 and their third since last December.
Roster
Chu “Shadow” Zeyu – position 1
Zhou “bLink” Yang – position 2
Zhang “bian” Ruida – position 3
Zhang “innocence” Yiping – position 4
Li “iceice” Peng – position 5
Recent achievements:
Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 – 7-12th
H-Cup Season 1 – 4th
Win rate:
April – 62.5% (5 wins, 3 losses)
Patch 6.86 – 58.3% (28 wins, 20 losses)
Top 5 most picked heroes (patch 6.86)
| Hero | Pick % | Times Picked |
| Gyrocopter | 41.7 | 20 |
| Vengeful Spirit | 35.4 | 17 |
| Invoker | 35.4 | 17 |
| Nature’s Prophet | 33.3 | 16 |
| Witch Doctor | 33.3 | 16 |
Top 5 most banned heroes (patch 6.86)
| Hero | Ban % | Times Banned |
| Earth Spirit | 72.9 | 35 |
| Invoker | 50.0 | 24 |
| Enchantress | 37.5 | 18 |
| Dark Seer | 33.3 | 16 |
| Bounty Hunter | 31.3 | 15 |
Wings Gaming’s picks are consistent with the current hero pool popularity. Their most picked hero is Gyrocopter, a Carry who, apart from being viable in the later stages of the game, is very good in mid and early gameplay too.
Wings Gaming tend to prefer Carries who can be used effectively in team fights in every stage of the game. Similar heroes, namely Juggernaut (13 picks) and Tiny (10 picks), are the second and third most picked Carries for the team.
This role is usually filled by Shadow, who has excellent farming skills. He doesn’t remain isolated, but gets involved in team fights in the early stages. Templar Assassin (652 GPM), Juggernaut (610 GPM) and Anti-Mage (600 GPM) are the heroes with whom his farming skills shine the most, and on some occasions he has been able to get his Juggernaut six slotted before the 30 minute mark. Shadow’s playing style is rather disciplined and calculated, while he is not much of a risk taker or opportunist.
Apart from him, Wings have a solid Invoker player in the face of bLinK. The team also use the four-protect-one strategy, which is very useful when a team have a player with very good farming skills.
The main concern for Manila is Wings Gaming’s lack of experience as they have historically struggled to qualify for Premier tournaments. They also need to improve on their ability to read the game as their in-game decision making has been severely punished by stronger teams in the past due to naïve mistakes (for example LGD in the H-Cup Season 5). Meanwhile, their drafting phase sometimes has cracks and this has caused them to lose prematurely.
After the Chinese collapse at home in Shanghai, Wings Gaming will certainly feel like a breath of fresh air for Chinese Dota. However, although they can demonstrate flashes of good play, there are too many question marks hanging over the team for them to achieve anything more significant than qualification here.
Dafabet will be providing competitive odds on ESL One Manila.
